Friday, February 17, 2012

The Rod Stewart (the old Scottish Rocker)

Seeing as this chair is currently featured in Home Beautiful magazine's 'Design Profile' (thank you Home Beautiful and the lovely Bronwyn McNulty who was good enough to tell me to adjust my skirt for the profile picture!) we thought we better tell you its make-over story.

Remember back here when we pulled two chairs out of a skip? Well this was one of them, the other one had special undergarments attached, this one had cockroach eggs and hellish dirt.

The curse of polyurethane varnish had to be dealt with - paint stripper - we use Citristrip which is biodegradable and non-toxic, but it's a hell of a job.

Sanding complete and layers of Danish Oil applied. We kept the original Don Rex label and reapplied it to the new base cover.

With the left over wool from the recycled kilt, we piped and buttoned and then styled with our own thistle cushion which was bought by Fiona for her 96 year old mum who spotted it in the magazine.

Why the Scottish theme you ask? Well, my clan motto is 'we will Flourish again' hence Flourish and Blume. Needless to say, my poor ancestors were pretty well hammered by the invading forces from the south and their landowning puppets. And it irks me to see all these Union Jacks all over the place as 'British Imperial' style becomes everyones favourite as if it was a period in history we should be celebrating. Not that I'm saying an English man or woman shouldn't proudly wave their flag but I find it strange and a tad obscene that Australians are sporting the Union Jack all over their furniture and homewares at the moment especially considering the British Imperial era of this country. The flag cushion being the most popular, we've taken a stand and printed the Saltire cushion and here it sits proudly on the Rod Stewart.

This is the first and only Don Rex rocking chair we've ever come across. It's constructed with beautiful Queensland maple. SOLD!

Email us at: flourishandblume@yahoo.com.au
Our mission is to SAVE THE CHAIRS. We find mid-century furniture locally - on the side of the road, at the tip and at local auctions and restore them to their former glory. We upholster and restore using local, handmade and sustainable materials and fabrics wherever possible.